A different connection
by Whispering Ranger
Summary: Hawks and lions never go well together. Strangely enough, the same couldn't be said about Shane and Dustin.


_**Disclaimer:** I don't own them. If I did, they'd be in my room, and I'd skip school everyday to hang with them._

_Yay, my very first Shane/Dustin! Well, it's only light slash, but it's my first with the two of them, so it just has to be light! I rewrote this again and again, never pleased, but I guess this'll have to do. The title is kinda... weird... but I had no idea what to call it! -pouts-_

--

**A different connection**

--

Dustin could clearly remember the first time he had met Shane. He embraced the warm memory and cradled it to his chest and protected it so as to never forget.

He had been four at the time, and the day had been sunny and warm. Okay, that sounded clichèd, but... his and Shane's first meeting had been kinda clichè. He'd been in the sandbox, playing with the sand, alone as he usually was.

He hated being alone. He didn't know why, but for some reason he just _needed_ physical contact. But when you were being teased by other kids, being with them was difficult. That's when Shane came in.

Dustin had just turned back from retrieving a toy when a shadow had fallen over him. Blinking twice, he had looked up to see a dark-skinned boy, with black hair and dressed in red look down at him with a curious expression. Dustin had frowned, raised his hand and waved half heartedly, and the other boy had grinned. Dustin had felt a small smile of his own creep onto his lips.

"Wanna play with me?" he asked shyly, and then waited, afraid of a rejection of some sort. But the boy had just nodded and sat down in the sand with him.

"I'm Shane," he said and stuck out a hand. Dustin watched the hand, and wondered if he should shake it. Okay, that was stupid, why shouldn't he? And so he did, and smiled enthusiastically.

"I'm Dustin."

Shane grinned, and then scooped up a little sand and tossed it at him. Dustin shook his head and blinked at him. Then he scooped up a little of his own and tossed it back, and so the ice was broken.

After that, they'd been best friends, and constantly played together. Dustin was still plagued by older and/or stronger boys teasing him and sometimes hitting or kicking him, but Shane had started to become incredibly protective of him.

One day, Shane came barging into Dustin's room, exclaiming: "I'm gonna become a power ranger."

Dustin could only envy him. Shane definitely had the build to become one when he became older, and no matter how much Dustin wanted to become a ranger as well, he didn't.

He wasn't particularly scrawny or something, but he wasn't really muscled or something either. Granted he was only five and a half years old, he still had some time... but he still envied Shane, though he didn't let it show and instead grinned and nodded.

"You'd make a great ranger!" he exclaimed in return, and seeing how Shane's eyes lit up at that statement, he found out he didn't care whether or not he became a ranger; as long as Shane's wish came true, Dustin would be happy. Fat chance though. But with his five and a half years, Dustin believed in everything!

Shane settled in the bed and looked at Dustin. He made a humming sound, then smiled, and nodded. "You could be a ranger too!"

Dustin stared bewilderedly at him. "I could so not!" he protested.

"You could so!" Shane replied.

"Could not!"

"Could too!"

"Could not!"

"Why not?" Shane wanted to know.

"Because... because I just can't!" Dustin said, crossing his arms. "It's the rules!"

Shane frowned. "What rules?"

"You know what rules." Dustin said with a vigorous nod. Shane just sighed and shook his head.

"Some days I just don't understand you."

There were a lot of days the two didn't understand each other in the beginning. Though with the years, they learned. They learned to read what the other felt, only that Dustin read it in Shane's eyes, and Shane read it in Dustin's body. They learned in other ways too. Through how the other breathed, change in tones when the other spoke, and through how much they would talk from day to day.

To others, it could seem like the two had a very... intimate friendship, but it was just how they were. Others could be judgemental, and it went more into Dustin than Shane. Dustin tried to hide it, but with Shane, it was impossible. And somehow he was grateful.

When they befriended Tori in middle school, she commented that they had a bond. Looking back, both Shane and Dustin knew she was right. They would gladly admit it too, if you asked. Their friendship was in a way unique, and they treasured it like nothing else.

When they became ninjas, they experienced something that just wasn't supposed to happen. Their animal spirits, or animal guides rather, as Sensei Watanabe so lightly put it, were _connected_, in a way the hawk and the lion hadn't been for years.

It left both Shane and Dustin slightly uncomfortable, as they had never really... thought of their friendship that way. But the further they advanced in their ninja training, the further and stronger their bond, the connection, grew. And there was nothing they could do about it.

It was as if they were fated to become such close friends. But fated would be the wrong word. It was more like... destined.

Then, when they became rangers, their bond just became stronger, but it also caused them to argue more.

When Hunter and Blake showed up, Dustin could see by the way Shane's body tensed every time the three of them were together somewhere near the red ranger, that he was jealous.

Dustin reassured him time and time again that he, Blake and Hunter were nothing but friends, but for Shane that was hard to believe. And that put their so called connection on a hard trip.

Eventually he did realise that there was nothing but friendship between his best friend and the two thunders, and that left him ashamed for ever thinking it.

But Dustin, trusting and forgiving as always, let it pass with a smile. As long as Shane promised never to believe something like that again, Dustin was happy.

When they lost their powers, he and Shane had been pretty snappy at each other, because their connection thinned out, if you could put it that way.

They'd had some very, very long conversations with Sensei Watanabe, who was "concerned for their well-beings."

He made them realise that even though they lost their powers, and their connection thinned, it didn't fade completely, and it never would. They just had to realise that.

And laying there in Shane's bed, securely wrapped in the air teacher's arms, Dustin knew Sensei had been right.

--

_So what do you think? Like it? Don't like? Utterly despise it and think I should never try myself on Shane/Dustin again? Review and let me know!_


End file.
